A state in India has banned Pulitzer-Prize winner Joseph Lelyveld’s new book about Mahatma Gandhi after reviews said it hints that Gandhi had a homosexual relationship.
The author responded, “The book does not say that Gandhi was bisexual or homosexual. It says that he was celibate and deeply attached to Kallenbach. This is not news.”
Chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, has asked the central government to ban the publication nationwide. Modi said Lelyveld should apologize publicly for “hurting the sentiments of millions of people.”
Had the author made direct claims about Gandhi’s sexual orientation, his work would be even more vehemently rejected in India and many other places in the world because archaic and bigoted views about sexuality are so pervasive. They really need to step into the present century and examine their intolerance.
Sudhir Kakar, a psychoanalyst who has written about Gandhi’s sexuality and reviewed some of his correspondence with Kallenbach, said he does not believe the two men were lovers. Gandhi’s great goals were nonviolence, celibacy and truth, Kakar said.
Some religions, like Hindu, promote the belief that you can just dissipate sexual urges and that celibacy will give you a special power or connection to God. Maybe, but unfortunately repression of sexual urges can also give you the “special power” of perversion, to the detriment of yourself and others.
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Read the entire article here: http://asiancorrespondent.com/51542/india-state-bans-book-hinting-gandhi-had-gay-lover/.
Copyright (c) 2011 Stephen Petullo
Photo credit: Associated Press
